I used to be the in the group that said having a Twitter and Instagram account was not that important. But that all changed this summer. I am now on board with that it is great for the player to have. Before going out to the PG 14u National Showcase I was talked into getting both accounts by a group of parents who have some high profile players. Needles to say, after coming back from the event, coaches started following my son on both platforms. My son, playing up on varsity in a high school fall league, had a really good outing. I sent some of the video I took and sent it over to the head guy of my son's showcase organization. He sent it out via Twitter and Instagram. My son's account took off overnight from follows from college coaches. He also had some schools (D1) call the showcase coach and the high school the next couple of days asking about him and asking for him to give them a call.
There are so many players out there, and college coaches can't be everywhere. So they are definitely watching. Now most of the stuff they pay attention to is going to be posts by PG, PBR, showcase programs that they have relationships with or know put out a bunch of college players, etc. But getting the name and the player in front of the college coach is part of the battle. That is when the player's account will start to gain followers in the form of coaches. I check my son's account every couple of days to see his new follows. Some of the time the coaches will even follow the trail and follow my account and my wife's account.